Tailstock adjustment : go for the drill chuck or live center ?

[Dabbler]

1 thou over 2 inches is so little extra stress.... over longer turnings, the effect is hard to measure with the best equipment.

My LeBlond is .003 high at the tailstock. I'm not changing that. For threading the end of barrels, I use a MT3 boring head in the tailstock, and use that to hold a dead centre .003 down, to get perfect alignment.

 

[ChazzC]

This is what I did.

Sorry, but I question the rigidity/stability of the indicator when a ball mount is grasped with point contact in a 3-jaw (not to mention the runout of a 3-jaw to begin with).

I believe that @Dabbler's suggestion for using a collet also expected grasping a straight shaft attachment:

Yes, you'll need a mirror, but a similar setup to the above will yield more accurate results (apologies, but I have a 7x16, so the scale is different than your setup).

 

[Dabbler]

Sorry, but I question the rigidity/stability of the indicator when a ball mount is grasped with point contact in a 3-jaw (not to mention the runout of a 3-jaw to begin with).

ball mount? My test indicators all have integral shank or dovetail mounts that are bombproof.

 

[GeneT45]

Sorry, but I question the rigidity/stability of the indicator when a ball mount is grasped with point contact in a 3-jaw (not to mention the runout of a 3-jaw to begin with).

The runout is immaterial - the indicator will rotate about the spindle axis even if the chuck is out by a huge amount.

GsT

 

[Dabbler]

@GeneT45 is 100% correct. I tried to say that in my earlier post.